Yale travels to the Palestra for a matinee matchup with Penn. I’m concerned about how Yale will defend the three today, because that’s how Penn makes their money.
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I think the key here is whether Power can keep Townsend from dominating the game.
Penn in Ivy Play doesn’t impress me. Mostly just Roberts/Power go get a bucket or someone hoists a 3.
I think our athleticism takes over.
Defense is improving
Winning a different way as of late…the old way.
Giving up only 60 in the palestra is impressive
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Lots of energy on defense. Nice solid road win. Alone in first place.
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on the surface always hard to decipher poor shooting from great defense. this was also true in our offensive meltdown in the airplane hanger a few weeks back.
i am encouraged though. yes penn got called for 5 or so moving screens which is kind of nuts and shot fts poorly when it mattered…but the stress of our perimeter d contributed at least some to those calls
our swing factors are aletan and simmons. i called both out a month ago. we needed more. aletan wasnt stellar against penn overall but made two highlight blocks in 2h that made them think.
simmons was elite on d and on o. need this to stick.
lastly celiscar with the ball in his hands is making excellent decisions. this takes some pressure off townsend esp when he fights the late double team.
earlier in the year some teams doubled townsend on the perimeter touch. this made no sense to me. they have adjusted. anyway celiscar doesnt have a great perimeter game to stretch the d but his slips off the townsend double and his decision making with the ball have been excellent. it also helps that he shoots fts so well.
i wish he wld eliminate the midair pump on his paint jumpers and seek more contact. but thats an aside.
lot of detail but i am sitting in an ice storm with little do do
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I always wonder about those highlight blocks. The one where he volleyball-spiked it out of bounds…if you’ve got that much lead recognition, why not try to snag it or at least keep it in bounds?
The other thing I liked about yesterday was Trevor’s poise. Had the ankle-breaker three hit on him, went a bit cold in the middle 20…never seemed to get down about it.
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Could not agree more.
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i hear your point.
really hard to control the ball on a block though.
bill russell, mourning, mutombo, etc could. but that is an elite skill
there are also fewer more humiliating plays for an offensive player than getting swatted out of bounds. makes you think. closest play to getting dunked on when roles are reversed.
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Couldn’t agree more about Isaac. 22 assists combined in his last three games, which is bananas for a combo forward. And Casey’s offensive emergence is huge.
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Encouraging to win games in the paint. The three point shooting was decent but it wasn’t why Yale won the game. I think Yale would have been ok even with a repeat of the 17% shooting from the Princeton game.